Robert Carter I
Robert Carter I | |
---|---|
Speaker of the Virginia House of Burgesses | |
In office 1696–1697 | |
Preceded by | Philip Ludwell |
Succeeded by | William Randolph |
In office 1699–1699 | |
Preceded by | William Randolph |
Succeeded by | Peter Beverley |
Personal details | |
Born | c. 1664 Corotoman Plantation, Lancaster County, Virginia, British America |
Died | Lancaster County, Virginia, British America | 4 August 1732 (aged 69)
Spouse(s) | Judith Armistead Elizabeth Landon Willis |
Children | 15, including Landon Carter, Charles Carter (of Cleve) |
Colonel Robert Carter I (c. 1664 – 4 August 1732) was a planter, merchant, and government official and administrator who served as Acting Governor of Virginia, Speaker of the Virginia House of Burgesses, and President of the Virginia Governor’s Council. An agent for the Northern Neck Proprietary, Carter emerged as the wealthiest Virginia colonist and received the sobriquet “King” from his contemporaries connoting his autocratic approach and political influence.[1] Involved in the founding of the College of William and Mary, he acquired at least 300,000 acres and engaged one thousand enslaved laborers on fifty plantations.[2] Carter was the largest land owner in Virginia.[citation needed]
Born around 1664 at Corotoman in Lancaster County, Carter received a classical education and studied the tobacco trade in London under Arthur Bailey.[3] He returned to Corotoman between 1678 and 1679 and inherited the plantation when his elder half-brother, John Carter Jr., died in 1690. He married Judith Armistead of Hesse in 1688. Following her death in 1699, Carter married widow Elizabeth Landon in 1701.
Elected a burgess in 1691, Carter represented the electoral constituency of Lancaster County consecutively during the 1695 to 1699 assemblies and served as Speaker from 1696 to 1697 and in 1699. After an appointment as militia commander of Lancaster and Northumberland counties and naval officer in 1699, he served as Treasurer of Virginia from 1699 to 1705. Appointed to the Governor’s Council by Francis Nicholson in 1699, Carter opposed Nicholson’s policies in 1704 and indirectly influenced the governor’s removal in 1705.
Carter was appointed agent of the Northern Neck Proprietary in 1702 though lost the lease to his political opponent, Edmund Jenings, in 1711.[4] He regained the proprietary in 1722 and was involved in the dismissal of Alexander Spotswood. In 1726, he was designated President of the Governor’s Council and appointed Acting Governor when his predecessor, Hugh Drysdale, died in office, and he was succeeded by William Gooch in 1727.[5] Afflicted with gout in later life, Carter died on August 4, 1732, at Corotoman and was buried at Christ Church in Lancaster County.
Early life and education
Robert Carter I was born around 1664 at Corotoman in Lancaster County, Virginia.[1] Carter’s father was John Carter Sr., a merchant, councillor, and burgess who emigrated from London to Virginia in 1635 and settled in Upper Norfolk County by 1640.[6] His mother was Sarah Ludlow Carter, John Carter’s fourth wife, who died in 1668.[7] His father died the following year, bequeathing most of his landholdings to Carter’s elder-half brother, John Carter Jr., under primogeniture.[8] Carter inherited one thousand acres in Lancaster County, one-third of his personal estate, and several of his father’s theology books.[3]
Carter’s father arranged provisions for a formal education and noted his second son should study Latin with guidance from a private tutor.[6] John Carter Jr. adhered to his father’s instructions and sent his younger half-brother to London about 1673. Placed under the direction of Arthur Bailey, a tobacco merchant and John Carter Sr.’s agent, he received a religious and classical education, gained awareness of the tobacco trade from Bailey, and observed architectural advancements in London engendered by the Great Fire in 1666.[3]
After living in London for six years, Carter returned to Virginia between 1678 and 1679 and resided at Corotoman with John Carter Jr. and his wife, Elizabeth Travers Carter.[8][3] When his elder half-brother died in 1690, he inherited his landholdings, managed his niece’s properties, and obtained a portion from a younger half-brother. On June 10, 1690, he became justice of the peace for Lancaster County, and on November 8, 1690, he was elected as a vestryman for Christ Church Parish.[1] He engaged as churchwarden about 1691, a capacity he would occupy until his death.[8] In 1688, he married Judith Armistead of Hesse, the daughter of planter and councillor John Armistead, then in Gloucester County and currently in Mathews County.[9][10] They had five children, three of whom survived infancy, including John. Following her death in 1699, Carter married the widow Elizabeth Landon Willis, the daughter of Thomas Landon, in 1701.[11] They had five daughters and five sons, seven of whom reached adulthood.[12]
Career
At age 28, shortly after his elder half-brother died Robert Carter entered the
Ultimately, Carter would become as influential a member of the Governor's Council as he had been in the colony's legislature. He was among the majority of Councillors who opposed Nicholson in 1704, which led indirectly to that governor's dismissal. A decade later, in the controversy between resident Lieutenant Governor Alexander Spotswood and the great planters, Carter sided with his fellow planters opposing Spotswood. After the death of Governor Hugh Drysdale in 1726, as the council's President (by seniority after the death of Edmund Jenings and despite his own poor health), Carter served as acting Governor of Virginia until Lieutenant Governor William Gooch took office on 11 September 1727. Carter continued to attend Council meetings until the General Assembly adjourned on 1 July 1732, five weeks until his death.[1] Meanwhile, much of Carter's land acquisition was as the Virginia resident land agent of
Death
Carter died on 4 August 1732, in
When Lord Fairfax saw Carter's obituary in the London monthly The Gentleman's Magazine, he was astonished to read of the immense personal wealth acquired by his resident land agent. Rather than name another Virginian to the position, Fairfax made arrangements to have his cousin, Colonel William Fairfax, move to Virginia to act as land agent, with the paid position of customs inspector (tax collector) for the Potomac River district. Fairfax himself then visited his vast Northern Neck Proprietary from 1735 to 1737, and he moved there permanently in 1747.
Family and descendants
Carter endowed each of his sons who reached marriageable age in his lifetime with significant plantations. Robert Carter II, whom his father called "Robin," would die of a sudden illness months before his father, but his Nomini Hall plantation was inherited by his son,
Another brother, George Carter, remained in England, where he practiced law but did not marry (nor take possession of his Virginia inheritance). Carter had five children with his first wife, Judith Armistead:[17][18]- Sarah Carter (born ~1690, died in infancy)[9][18]
- Elizabeth Carter (~1692-1734) married Nathaniel Burwell in 1709, then George Nicholas.[9][18]
- Judith Carter (born ~1694) died in infancy before her mother and buried near her at Christ Church[9][18]
- Judith Carter (1695–1750) married
- John Carter (1696–1742) married Elizabeth Hill of Shirley Plantation[9][18][19]
Carter had ten children with his second wife, Betty Landon Willis (1684-1719), of whom seven reached adulthood:
- Anne Carter (1702–1743) married Benjamin Harrison IV;[9] (parents of Benjamin Harrison V and grandparents of President William Henry Harrison).[9]
- Robert Carter II (1704–1732) married Priscilla Churchill, and died four months before his father.[9]
- Sarah Carter (~1705–1705)[9]
- Betty Carter (~1705–1706)[9]
- Charles Carter (1707–1764) married Mary Walker, then Anne Byrd (daughter of Col. William Byrd II), then Lucy Taliaferro (who survived him).[9]
- Ludlow Carter (born ~1709, died as child)[9]
- Landon Carter (1710–1778) married Maria Byrd, daughter of Col. William Byrd II.[9]
- Mary Carter (1712–1736) married George Braxton; (parents of Carter Braxton).[9]
- Lucy Carter (1715–1763) married Henry Fitzhugh[9]
- George Carter (1718–1742)[9]
Other notable descendants include:
- Carter Braxton, grandson, signer of Declaration of Independence
- Robert Burwell (1720-1777), grandson, member of the House of Burgesses
- Charles Carter (of Ludlow) (1732-1796), grandson, burgess, delegate, member of the Governor's council
- Charles Hill Carter (1732-1806), grandson, planter (at Shirley plantation) and burgess
- Charles Carter, Jr. (burgess), grandson, planter and burgess
- Robert Carter III (1727–1804), grandson, member of the Governor's council
- Talcott Eliason (1826–1896), J.E.B. Stuart's Field Surgeon during the Civil War;[20]
- Robert E. Lee (1807–1870), Confederate States Army general.
- Robert Randolph Carter (1825-1888), Confederate States Army first lieutenant
- John Page (1743–1808), 13th Governor of Virginia.
- Mann Page (1749–1781), Virginia delegate to the Continental Congress in 1777
- Thomas Nelson Page (1853–1922), US ambassador to Italy during the Woodrow Wilson administration.
- William Nelson Page (1854–1932), American civil engineer and industrialist.
- James "Gentleman Jim" Robinson, one of the wealthiest African Americans in the Manassas area. His homestead was located between the lines of the Confederate and Union armies during two major battles of the Civil War.
See also
- Robert Carter III
- Carter's Grove Plantation
- Corotoman Plantation
- Rosewell Plantation
- Shirley Plantation
- Christ Church
- History of slavery in the United States
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Berkeley, Edmund (2006). Robert Carter (ca. 1664-4August 1732). Vol. 3. p. 84.
{{cite book}}
:|work=
ignored (help) also available at https://encyclopediavirginia.org/entries/carter-robert-ca-1664-1732/ - ^ "House History". history.house.virginia.gov. 2023. Retrieved 23 July 2023.
- ^ a b c d Mesrobian, Jamie Elizabeth (1 January 2009). "An Analysis of Primary Resources Used as Tools for Discovery and Research at Archaeological Sites: Nomini Hall Case Study". Theses, Dissertations & Honors Papers: 4–5.
- ^ Knight, Thomas Daniel (2021). "Edmund Jenings (1659–1727)". Encyclopedia Virginia. Retrieved 24 July 2023.
- ^ Brock, Robert Alonzo (1888). Virginia and Virginians, Vol. I, p. 40. Richmond and Toledo: H.H. Hardesty.
- ^ a b Brown, Katharine (1986). Robert "King" Carter: Builder of Christ Church. Foundation for Historic Christ Church, Inc. pp. 1–4.
- ^ Bradley, Richard C. (13 September 2018). "327 Years Ago in 1691..." Jamestowne Society. Retrieved 24 July 2023.
- ^ a b c Berkeley, Edmund (10 November 2015). "The Diary, Correspondence, and Papers of Robert 'King' Carter of Virginia, 1701-1732". christchurch1735.org. Retrieved 24 July 2023.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Foundation for Historic Christ Church. "History: Robert "King" Carter of Corotoman (1663-1732)". Historic Christ Church. Lancaster County, Virginia. Archived from the original on 17 October 2003. Retrieved 22 December 2010.
- ^ Garber, Virginia Armistead (1910). The Armistead Family, 1635-1910. New York Public Library. Richmond: Whittet & Shepperson.
- ^ "Robert "King" Carter (1663-1732) - HouseHistree". househistree.com. Retrieved 26 July 2023.
- ^ Jett p. 63
- ^ "Nomony Hall – Encyclopedia Virginia".
- ^ "The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography". Virginia Historical Society. 19 April 2018.
- University of Virginia Library
- ^ see note on talk page
- LCCN 83081512.
- ^ a b c d e f Garber, Virginia Armistead (1910). "John Armistead: The Second Son of William the Immigrant". The Armistead family: 1635-1910. Richmond, Virginia: Whittet & Shepperson Printers. pp. 30–33.
- Encyclopedia Virginia. Retrieved 13 July 2015.
- ISBN 0-8061-3193-4. pp. 192, 236